In a recent HoosierGazette.com survey, 66.3% of Hoosiers
polled did not see anything wrong with abusing Iraqi prisoners of war if it
helped our government obtain information on the whereabouts of key al-Qaeda
figures or other Iraqi insurgents.
While most of the rest of the nation was outraged by photos
depicting cruel treatment of prisoners at Iraq’s Abu
Ghraib prison, most Hoosiers supported the acts of guards working there.
“Those idiots have killed or were plotting to kill
Americans,” said Indianapolis resident Ryan Parker, “They should be tortured as
far as I am concerned.”
Some Indiana residents believe the photos have been taken
totally out of context by the mass media. “How do we know the guards were
making them do all that stuff?” said Crawfordsville resident Ward Possman, “For
example, that big pile of naked Iraqis they were showing on TV. The guards
might have been teaching them how to play our brand of football and they were
going after a loose ball. How do we know who to believe?” When I asked Possman
why prisoners would play football naked, he replied, “Iraq is a desert. I
imagine it is awfully hot and they were trying to beat the heat.”
Twenty-seven percent of Indianans surveyed felt the U.S.
should pull our troops out of Iraq immediately after draining the country of its
oil reserves. “Then we should aim one missile at Iraq and blow that piece of
crap right off of the map—just like (rapper) Bushwick Bill said the first time
we went to Iraq,” said Evansville resident Bruce Cummings.
Four percent of Hoosiers surveyed thought we should pull
out of Iraq without draining its oil and erasing the country from existence,
while three percent of those polled were not aware of the war in Iraq.
